Elon Musk's 'hardcore' work ultimatum was a deliberate plan to push Twitter employees out after he was warned against cutting more than 50% of staff

Musk wanted to lay off more than half of the people at the company.

After he was advised to make bigger cuts, he agreed to lay off just 50%.

He sent staff an email that told them to commit to hardcore work in order to get more employees to leave.

The CEO and CFO were fired immediately after Musk took over. Around half of the company's workforce was cut after he laid off staff.

Some of the workers who criticized him were fired.

Musk sent an email to staff at midnight on November 15 to see if they were still loyal to him. He told workers in the email that they would need to be extremely hardcore to stay on at the company.

They would be laid off if they didn't commit by the end of the business day on November 17

Insider previously reported that Musk and his team had underestimated the number of people who would commit to the new version of the social media platform. According to sources, there was only one person left in the core services group.

As the 5:00 p.m. deadline approached, managers were asked to write lists of staff they thought were critical to the company but likely to leave, and the company's vice-presidents and Musk himself called some of them in a desperate bid to keep them.

After initially telling staff they'd have to return to the office or be fired, Musk's team offered staff raises of up to $100,000 to stay on, according to a report.

A person familiar with the company's processes told Insider that less than half of the company's 4,000 employees chose to stay on.

One of the workers who decided not to commit to "Twitter 2.0" was Peter Clowes, who had worked at the company since April 2020. There was no communication from the new leadership of the company on what they wanted to achieve.

Clowes said there wasn't a vision shared with them. It's nothing more than what anyone can see on the social networking site. Before you can see the offer, you have to sign it away. Loyalty test.

He said that the layoffs wiped out 85% of his team. The office was dull.

Some staff who were fired or resigned have been asked to come back to work. Musk persuaded Robin Wheeler to stay in the job despite her resignation on November 10. She was fired for not getting rid of her staff.

The company laid off some staff who were committed to its core values.